September 11

I added a couple of thoughts below:

Brenda and I visited New York City back in 2008.

We walked down to Wall Street...

...and to Ground Zero.

They were still cleaning up rubble,

A Globe sculpture that had stood in the plaza and had been crushed by falling debris

was set up off to the side.

Children of "First Responders", Firemen, Police and others, 

had painted tiles honoring their parents who died in the attack,

and hung them on this fence.

A view of Lower Manhattan, shrouded on fog,

is missing two tall landmarks.

Occasionally, as I have heard interviews of New Yorkers who were present on September 11, 2001, I hear remarks about the attacks on "their city", attacks on "them".  If I had the chance, I would argue with them, gently, and with great respect, that the attacks happened to all Americans.  New York was unlucky enough to be one of the central targets for jihadi aggression, but the attackers were targeting "America".  They were targeting all Americans.  The attacks happened to all of us.  That takes nothing away from the way we feel about New Yorkers.  Much to the contrary, we stand beside every one of them in the way we feel about the attacks, in the way we remember them.

This was kicking around my mind last night, but I couldn't figure out how to craft it, given the late hour.  But there is another thought that should be expressed:

In as much as the attacks were not on New Yorkers alone as much as they were on all Americans, there is another group that should be considered, and that is "everybody else".  By that, I mean that we should separate the world into "the (actual) bad guys" and "everybody else".  As time wore on, we saw horrible attacks in London, Madrid, Mumbai and more recently Copenhagen.  But even before 9-11-2001, we saw huge attacks in East Africa, and so many other places around the world.  The September 11 attacks were attacks on everyone who ins't themselves a "bad guy".  That's everyone around the world who travels, or who waits at home while their loved ones do...everyone who participates in the War on Terror, and all of their families and loved ones...it's everyone who has friends in other parts of the world, and who watch the news nervously anytime something blows up...if you are one of the good guys, then the attacks on New York were attacks on you.

The whole world came together in the days after September 11, in a way that only seems to happen after an event that effects literally everyone.  The whole world felt a connection with those who had suffered, and the whole world could envision something just as horrible happening in their home town.  We have drifted away from that feeling of solidarity in recent years.  Of course, that has to be expected I suppose, but I would like to see us achieve that feeling again, that is, if it doesn't take a huge, awful event to catalyze it.

As September 11, 2011 approaches, I recall the time I had been in the World Trade Center in 1999.  We had a customer located on the 95th Floor of Tower Two.  I still have vivid memories of looking out the window and down onto the Brooklyn Bridge, on an absolutely beautiful day.  Our customer, Bob, didn't make it out of the building in 2001.  I think I share New Yorker's tendency to take the attacks very personally.

Some say we in America cannot get over the attacks of September 11, cannot get passed it, cannot move on.  I do not agree.  I think the point is, we will not forget.  Period.  My feelings about that day are stirred every time I see images of the attacks, hear accounts of the victims, or hear news about losses of our young men and women in the Military, as they pursue the bad guys.  More than that, it's whenever I see our flag flying, hear patriotic music, or see one of our fighter jets screaming overhead.  I can guarantee that I will not forget.

Robert (Bob) D'Angelis

- Mark W. Laughlin

11-September-2011


All photos by MWL.